CHRIS FREMANTLE

This piece just went out on Public Art Scotland,

This Participation was the focus of the Imagining Possibilities conference at the University of the West of Scotland, but the conference is only a manifestation of a wider concern.  The conference is part of the Remaking Communities project funded as part of Connected Communities.  The Connected Communities programme embraces all the Research Funding Councils in a broad alliance to engage communities and thus increase impact.  The Paul Hamlyn Foundation is currently funding four strands of the ArtWorks programme, including one in Scotland.  The Scottish Government is currently working its way through a new bill on Community Empowerment and Renewal and the Westminster Government has already legislated on ‘localism’.  All of these programmes put community participation at the heart of, respectively, academic research, arts practice and local democracy.

continues in Public Art Scotland news…